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Rachel Rice BB9

In Mums Footsteps

A Survey out today claims young women no longer look to their mums as role models - and want a stress-free life.

It claims that after years of watching their mothers struggle to raise families and get on in their jobs, women today would gladly trade in a high-powered career for a better lifestyle.

But the results of a mini-survey by the Argus were by no means so clear cut.

The survey of 1,500 women for a woman's magazine found:

* Seven out of 10 women say they don't want to work as hard as their mothers;

* When they have children, only 11 per cent would want to work full-time;

* Eight out of 10 think women are expected to fulfil too many roles;

* 75 per cent think a man should be the main bread-winner if possible.

The findings were backed by Gwent student Rachel Rice, of St Dials, Cwmbran.

The 21-year-old said she watched her mother, Julia, bring up a family, be a wife, get an education and hold down a part-time job as a carer in Holly Lodge nursing home, Cwmbran, and thinks women are expected to do too much.

Although she wants to pursue an acting career after completing her BA in English Literature and Drama at the University of the West of England, Bristol, when she has children she will make them her first priority.

She said: "I'm proud of my mum and how hard she's worked.

"And although I don't mind working hard until I have children, once they come along, I'd swap a high-powered career for a good work-life balance any day."

Like 80 per cent of those interviewed for the magazine, mum Julia, 46, also thinks women are expected to fulfil too many roles.

By the time she was 25 she was married with four children. But ten years later she decided to go back to education and spent six years completing various courses.

She said: "I've always done all of the housework. Only in the past six months has my husband, Joseph, started cooking for himself if I'm not home.